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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Mush willing to meet Sharif
Rare recording of Gandhi speech found in Washington
India to get Russian nuclear submarine
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Indians among 17 enslaved in Belgium
Disappearance of MV Rezzak
Sobhraj plans wedding with 20-year-old girl
UN offices in Pak receives threats
Americans barred from making donations to Pak groups
Attacks on Scribes
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Israel-Palestine Conflict
Cairo, July 3 The two countries also expressed concern at the phenomenal rise in food and fuel prices in recent months and resolved to work together in addressing these challenges. They emphasised the importance of food and energy security, especially for developing countries like India and Egypt. They underscored the importance of continuing consultation and co-ordination between them in the UN, the Non-Aligned Movement and other international forums. External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who concluded his three-day visit to Egypt today, held wide-ranging talks on bilateral, regional and international situation, including West Asia, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubaarak and foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. He also had a meeting with Amre Moussa, secretary-general of the League of the Arab States, before his departure from Cairo. “India reiterated consistent support for the Palestinian cause and called for early resumption of negotiations on all tracks under the Middle East Peace Process. Both sides agreed that force and violence would not lead to peace in the region,” an external affairs ministry spokesman said. Both sides expressed satisfaction at the developments in recent months in the evolution of friendly relations between India and Egypt. Gheit and Mukherjee recognised the immense potential for enhancing economic cooperation between India and Egypt. The two sides reiterated their commitment to diversify and deepen the scope of their economic, trade and investment linkages. The Ministers agreed that the discussions held during the recent exchanges of high-level visits had thrown up new opportunities for strengthening political and economic interaction between India and Egypt.
— UNI
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Mush willing to meet Sharif
President Pervez Musharraf has said that he is open to interaction with everyone, including Nawaz Sharif.
"My doors are open to all, including Sharifs," Musharraf was quoted by aides as having reassured US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher during their meeting yesterday. He emphatically denied that he was an impediment to the smooth functioning of the present democratic dispensation. He said he had no grudges against Sharif brothers and would be willing to meet them if they so desired. The President said he wanted the new Parliament and the coalition to succeed. He said he was not involved in any attempt to destabilise the federal or any provincial government, including Punjab. Nawaz Sharif turned down Boucher's advice during their meeting on Tuesday in Lahore to soften his campaign against Musharraf. Sharif described the President as the biggest hurdle in the democratic process and accused him of conspiring against his party-the PML-N. Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif also stated on Wednesday that Musharraf was engaged in intrigues against his government but vowed to frustrate these efforts. The senior US diplomat has extended his trip to Pakistan from three to five days, ostensibly for a crucial meeting with PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and some other key political leaders. The main thrust of his discussions with the political and military leaders of the country has been to galvanize continued support to the US-led war on terror, dissuading politicians from negotiating peace deals with pro-Taliban militants in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and deflecting current campaign against Musharraf to either step down voluntarily or face impeachment in Parliament. In oblique vibes to the Pakistani leadership, the Bush Administration has clarified that it does not consider Musharraf as indispensable to the US interests in the region because of his steeply diminished role in influencing the government policies. But it does not want humiliation of its erstwhile staunchest ally or any political turmoil in Pakistan before the US presidential elections in November that may affect the fortunes of the Republican Party.
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Rare recording of Gandhi speech found in Washington
Washington, July 3 But very few English speakers have heard Gandhi directly. That's because there were only two occasions when he was recorded speaking in English, according to his grandson and biographer Rajmohan Gandhi. One speech, about religious issues, was recorded in the 1930s. The second, especially historic because it was just a few months before Gandhi was assassinated, was made on April 2, 1947. For decades, this second speech has been largely lost to the world. A few years ago, an Italian cellphone company made a commercial using excerpts, and scattered fragments are available on the Internet. Recently, however, the second speech surfaced in - of all places - downtown Washington. It had been lovingly preserved for 60 years by John Cosgrove, a former president of the National Press Club. Cosgrove's copy came from Alfred Wagg, a journalist who recorded the speech in New Delhi and produced four 78-rpm LPs that included both Gandhi's voice as well as Wagg's own commentary about the Indian leader. Cosgrove discovered the significance of the recording during a chance encounter with Rajmohan Gandhi, when the author came to the Press Club last spring to promote his new biography. Gandhi's speech - made with the uneven diction of an elderly man who sounds as though he has lost most of his teeth - had the same themes he visited over and over throughout his life: the importance of nonviolence, the eradication of the caste system in society, amity between communities and a world united against violence and exploitation. "A friend asked yesterday, did I believe in one world?" Gandhi says at one point in the speech. "Of course I believe in World One. And how can I possibly do otherwise? ... You can redeliver that message now in this age of democracy, in the age of awakening of the poorest of the poor." This speech was made to a gathering of Asian leaders, for whom English was a common language. The speech is especially poignant not only because we now know Gandhi had barely 10 months left to live, but also because of something it does not explicitly note. It was made precisely one day after Gandhi had set in motion one of the most audacious political initiatives of his career. On April 1, 1947, Gandhi proposed that Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the ardent champion of the creation of Pakistan, be installed as the first prime minister of India - a united India. Gandhi placed his radical idea before Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India. Mountbatten was floored, since Gandhi was essentially saying he would ask his own Hindu-dominated Congress Party to relinquish the power that was about to fall into its lap after decades of struggle. Jinnah proved intrigued by the offer, according to an account Mountbatten wrote of the conversation, but Gandhi's colleagues in the Congress Party were horrified. A few days after the speech, they rejected the plan. India was divided and Pakistan born in August 1947, with millions of people killed and displaced during the partition of the subcontinent.. By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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India to get Russian nuclear submarine
Moscow, July 3 Factory trials of the multi-role nuclear submarine, christened INS Chakra which India would get on a 10-year-lease, commenced on June 11 at the Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard and would be followed by sea trials, Russian defence sources said, adding, it would be delivered by September 2009. According to experts, Chakra would help India fill the void caused by the delays in the Advanced Technology Vessel project to build a nuclear powered, guided missile attack submarine. Three Indian naval crews for the nuclear submarine have already been trained at the specially set-up training centre in Sosnovy Bor near St. Petersburg. Though they said India had financed the completion of construction of submarine of project 971 “Shchuka B” (NATO codename Akula) under the $ 650 million deal signed in 2004, as part of the larger Gorshkov package, they did not reveal the cost of the lease of Chakra. Akula (Shark) is the quietest Russian attack submarine and Chakra has been christened after its predecessor leased by the Indian Navy in 1988, from the erstwhile USSR. In January 1988, ex-USSR had leased K-43 nuclear submarine of project 670 (NATO codename Charlie) which was with the Indian Navy as INS Chakra till March 1991, when under the intense US pressure beleaguered Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev had refused to extend the lease.
— PTI
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Indians among 17 enslaved in Belgium
London, July 3 Police officers and officials from Belgium’s Labour Audit Authority raided the Conrad Hotel, the city’s most prestigious and the preferred choice of many national leaders during European Union summits, on Tuesday evening. The operation was triggered by the apparent escape of a maid who was among 20 servants working for the widow of a senior royal figure from the UAE and her four daughters who have rented the entire fourth floor of the hotel for the last year. Officials took away 17 persons, from countries including the Philippines, Morocco, India, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, amid allegations they had been held captive for eight months. Several members of the royal party have been questioned, the police said yesterday. No charges have been brought but the investigation continues. “We are convinced that these 17 girls are victims of people trafficking,” said an official. The servants allegedly had to be at the service of the Arab royals 24 hours a day and had their passports taken away on arrival in Belgium. The women were reportedly not allowed to leave the hotel and their monthly salaries were as low as £80 a month. “We were not allowed to leave the hotel and we had to be at their disposal 24 hours a day,” claimed one young woman of West Asian origin. “We were not allowed to complain or to ask any questions. We just had to be there at their beck and call,” she added. Last week, four maids from the Philippines allegedly attempted to escape from the hotel. The royal family’s security staff detained three but the fourth woman managed to alert the Belgian police. There was no response last night from the Brussels Embassy of the UAE when it was contacted to comment on the case. Most Belgian newspapers have described the case as “slavery right in the heart of Brussels”. The hotel is frequented by Europe’s royals and national leaders, including British Prime Ministers, during trips to Brussels and for EU summits.
— UNI
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Disappearance of MV Rezzak
London, July 3 Relatives of missing Indians believe the ship could have been hijacked or it could be a case of fraud and only the location of the vessel, through an underwater search, if necessary, will be acceptable to them as conclusion of the investigation, Kiran Dhingra, director -general of shipping and ex-officio additional secretary of the Government of India, said. Dhingra sought the "international investigation" at a meeting of the IMO, the highest maritime law- making body, here recently. The first investigation report by the UN body was sent to India early last month. Dhingra told PTI that the members of the IMO Council noted the incident with grave concern bearing in mind the safety of the crew and welfare of the families of the missing members.
— PTI
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Sobhraj plans wedding with 20-year-old girl
Kathmandu, July 3 “I met her two months ago and now we are in love, and I hope we will marry after I get released,” Sobhraj told PTI from Kathmandu’s central jail. Neha alias Nihita Bishwas, with a Nepali mother and a Bengali father based in Kathmandu, frequently comes to meet Sobhraj, jail officials confirmed. The girl, who met Sobhraj while he was looking for an interpreter, continued her meetings with him till they fell in love. That’s how the courtship started and soon Nihita was visiting him regularly. The celebrity criminal was arrested from a casino in Kathmandu in September 2003, and has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court in July 2004, on charges of murdering an American and a Canadian tourist in Kathmandu in 1975. However, Sobhraj claims that he was put in jail without any evidence and believes that he will be released soon, with the Supreme Court set for a final hearing on his appeal next week. “There was no evidence, no eyewitness to convict me in the murder,” he stressed. “The police had forged photocopies from a 30-year-old register of Soaltee and Malla hotels, which was presented as evidence,” he claimed, adding, “If I were in India and the same charge was made against me, I would not even be put in custody”.
— PTI
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UN offices in Pak receives threats
Islamabad, July 3 “A threatening phone call was made to a Gender Support Programme office of the UN here on Tuesday and investigations are underway,” UN communication officer Amna Ali Kamal said. A suicide car bomb attack outside the Danish Embassy here last month had caused extensive damage to the office of a UN-backed non-governmental organisation. Eight persons were killed in the bombing. Security around the United Nations country's office was tightened after the unidentified caller. A bomb disposal squad was asked to scan the building and adjoining areas and personnel of law enforcement agencies were deployed around the building. Rejecting reports about the closure of UN offices, Kamal told the Daily Times newspaper that the UN authorities had asked staffers of the Gender Support Programme office to remain at home and keep in touch via the Internet. The UN is working on a plan to relocate all its offices to the high-security diplomatic enclave. The construction of a pre-fabricated building is already under way at the enclave.
— PTI
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Americans barred from making donations to Pak groups
Washington, July 3 The order means any assets found in the USA are frozen and Americans are barred from making donations or otherwise doing business with the groups. "We are very concerned about designated entities reconstituting themselves under new names in attempts to circumvent sanctions and continue funnelling money to terrorist activities," Adam J Szubin, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Department of Treasury, said. "OFAC will continue to put the public on notice when we find that a designated entity is trying to operate under the cloak of a new alias," he added. According to the Treasury Department, the Al- Rashid Trust has different aliases like the Al- Amin Welfare Trust, the Al-Amin Trust; Al-Ameen Trust and the Al-Madina Trust.
— PTI
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Attacks on Scribes Sri Lanka’s leading newspaper publishers took the unprecedented step of writing to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday, requesting him to take appropriate steps to prevent the occurrences of incidents where the lives of journalists practising their profession were at risk. The letter came a day after when Namal Perera of the Sri Lanka Press Institute was attacked by a group of unidentified men on a busy road in Colombo on Monday evening causing him serious injuries. The publishers also offered a reward of five million Sri Lankan rupees (Around Rs 2.4 million Indian rupees) for any information leading to the arrest of the attackers. The move comes after attacks have grown against journalists as well as media institutions that report critically on defence matters. The official website of the Defence Ministry, which overseas the military operations against Tamil Tigers has been repeatedly attacking journalists calling them “traitors” if they report on defence -related news. The government has promised investigations into all these incidents but there has been no real progress.
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Indian jailed in Singapore 
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